Do we really need TV anymore? (1 Viewer)

[Francois Caron]

My computer is connected to a front projection based home theater system. And I can definitely confirm your statement on picture quality!

 

[MarkHastings]

Without TV; YouTube, DVD, HD, etc. would not be what they are today.

They'd all fail miserably if it weren't for broadcast TV. I wouldn't trade it (and my 300 selections) for anything!!!

 

[Don Giro]

I tend to watch my HBO favorites (Sopranos, Entourage, Curb, etc.) and a few network shows (Simpsons, Smallville, Shield, Rescue Me, Earl, Office) when they are first broadcast. Everything else (Lost, Galactica, Alias, Gilmore, Veronica, 4400, Reno 911, and many more) I only see when the DVDs are released. I discovered Smallville, The Shield, and Rescue Me on DVD and became a dedicated first-run viewer.

I agree with what has been said: without TV shows there'd BE no TV on DVD, due largely to our attitudes toward "Direct to Video" (regardless of whether any former cast member of "L.A. Law" appears in it or not).

I plan to buy an HD set one of these day. Come to think of it, it seems like EVERYBODY's in the market for a high-def set these days. If everyone's tending toward larger and clearer screens, why would I want to watch "Lost" on a 2" iPod? Is it the portability? I have a 7" portable DVD player that I use on work breaks, but it's not a substitute for a big screen.


How long does it take for BitTorrent to download or stream this content? How many "hiccups" are there during the download? How much bandwith is being consumed while you're streaming? And, perhaps most importantly, how long before your broadband provider starts whining about the HUGE downloads? I'm curious to know because I read reports almost every day about "bandwidth caps" and "excess usage" (which I'm against, of course). I can only envision watching quality programming over the internet in a country where consumers aren't limited to 1.5 to 6 mbps (I have 1.5 DSL) because they're so afraid that everyone is downloading pirated movies and music.

 

[KevinGress]

I agree with others that, for the moment, TV is necessary to provide content, and that until the model changes, it will remain so.

It's going to take someone brave, and perhaps a bit crazy, to buck the trend. I think a great example of a show that could exist outside of network TV and as direct-to-video or direct-to-PPV is Firefly. While not an overly successful TV show (or movie) ratings-wise, it has a built in audience that I think is large enough to support it if it were made available via DVD or download. (it's interesting to note that while on Fox it actually garnered a larger audience than Wedon's flagship show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but BtVS was brought over to UPN to prop it up...)

One would still need a place to go to sample "new shows", whether that's a website like YouTube, or free previews over cable/satellite, but I think there's a new market just waiting to be exploited....

I'm like others in that I probably only watch a handful of channels, and even then it's not an abundance of shows on them. So, for the time being, TV's here to stay and still a driving force.

 

[JediFonger]

me2 francis, unfortunately most BT broadcast contents are illegal =).

and the legal versions are much worse than SD broadcast.

nonetheless, most of the online stuff still pales to HDTV broadcasts, where it is very crisp.

the only redeeming value is upconverting SD-DVD to PC resolutions is very sweet. plus with ffdshow&/dscaler, it is very high quality.

on the other hand, if you can manuever your way around usenet, and if you have a copy of the movie on SD-DVD, i think there are huge selection of 1080p available. now... THOSE are awesome. it's practical HD movies for the here and now instead of waiting for BR/HD-DVD.

Don,
1. depending on how many seeders, with hundreds it takes about 1-3 hours. with thousands of seeders, it can be 1/2 hour to 1 hour or less for an avg 350MB file per 43min episode of an hour long TV series. shorter ones are even faster like family guy, 175MB in less than 1/2 hour usually for me.
2.there are no "hiccups" if you've setup everything properly in the 1st place.
3.you're not "streaming" anything. you're just d/l the whole chunk of a video file before you play it back.
4.technically your ISP is giving you "unlimited bandwidth" but you have to check our TOS for more details. i've read my TOS (Comcast) and it's got a vague legalese about how if it's 2much (words like "excess" or "limit") they can curb it. but i don't think even the worse offenders will reach anywhere near this limit. consumers will run out of hard drive space before they hit that limit.
5.as for caps, again read your isp's TOS. it should be outlined in there. otherwise you can take them to court cause their TOS doesn't have anything about limitations.
6.re: other countries, actually, it's already happened. global metropolitan cities in Europe and Asia that are in the 1st world usually have 25 to 100mpbs fibre connections. i think Japan delivers a lot of HDTV over fibre (to a degree). the have so much bandwidth that the people paying for it usually only uses 1/1000 of what it is capable of.